"Just one thing after another" - Unknown

ArtBART — San Francisco

At the time of doing this project I was unsure what journalism or media really meant. So I was inspired by the MIT Media Lab and decided to involve human - machine interaction in my work. The content is being created by humans using software on an iPhone and displayed on screen throught the ArtBART metro system.

Democratic Art. Imagine a collaborative art project. The experience of commuting to work on a train is boring. The Bay Area Rapid Transit system has wireless installed. Every person can use the Brushes application to make art while in the train. As there is wireless, the artwork can be emailed to a special address. It will show up on the screens in the train and in the stations. Users can vote on the works lifting the best works to the top. BART + Wireless + Brushes.

Two things are true.
One. The experience of commuting to work on a train is boring.
Two. The Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system has Wi-Fi wireless installed.
Imagine a collaborative art project. Every person can use an iPhone or iPad application (Brushes, Photoshops, and so forth) to make art while in the train.
As there is wireless, the artwork can be emailed to a special address. It will show up on the screens in the train in real time. And in the stations. Users can vote on the works lifting the best works to the top. BART + Wireless + iPhone.

Idea In Development

I'm developing an art project that I want to build on the San Francisco BART trains.

The name I came up with is ArtBART and here's a work-in-progress presentation.

I'd appreciate any new ideas, contacts, or help with developing the project further so we can make it a reality.

The abstract is this. MobART. Why should art be restricted to the galleries. Why should it only be created by artists? What if I said every one of us is and artist. What if I said art is everywhere. What if I told you 60% of the people in San Francisco have the tools to make art in their pocket.

These are precisely the things being said this century. Art has become democratic and everybody who wants can create it. So lets make some space for it. Lets do it where people go every day. Let do it where they have the time to do it. In the metro. On the train.

Artists

Space.

Bay Area Rapid Transit system trains and stations. Why? BART was among the first companies to open real time schedule information to third-party developers. BART has high speed wireless connectivity so screens can be installed inside the trains as well as in the stations. Bay area has the highest number of iPhones in the world.

LCD screens need to be installed in all the trains. Metro stations already have them. It depends on negotiations with the metro company whether these will be temporary or could be part of a long term investment. After the project they can be reused for display of advertisements or public information.

Justification in three I's.

Inspiration: anyone can create art. Innovation: a new use for the metro. Internationalization: collaboration without borders.

Advertising. How to involve the largest number of people? Advertizing for the project will be based on word-of-mouth. Facebook and Twitter accounts will be set up that announce new artworks that have been uploaded.

Timeframe. The length of the project depends on the participation gradient. We expect the first to be slower with early adopters taking part. The second week word of mouth will have traveled enough and commuters will be familiar enough with the system to try it out by themselves.

To quickstart the project we can recommend two approaches. Hire artists to sit on the train and draw. This means there is always someone using the system as an example (Preferrable). Post personnel with teaching experience to explain to commuters what they need to do. Paste posters on the walls with explanations (additional costs on poster design).

Audience

Participants. Young: 18 to 25. Owns and iPhone or other mobile device with capacity for drawing. Bay Area has 800 000 such people. 80% of the take the BART daily.

Goals

Promote creativity among the public. Show people the possibilities of out of the box thinking.

Future Prospects

As the project has some viral properties, if managed properly there are possibilities for viral spread and copy in other metropolicies. The limiting factors are. Access to Internet in the metro. Number of mobile devices with art capabilities in the hands of citizens.

While this is in essence a democratic project with a strong emphasis on participation, inviting renovned digital artists will lend some credibility to the project. Three high visibility stars will be invited:

- Jonathan Davis

- Jeremy Sutton

-

Invites

The project does not need formal openings and closings in with speeches and famous artists. The catalog will be entirely digital and accessible trough a website.

Music

Because music plays and important role in every human activity, the works will be viewed in an electronic music concert every friday. Together this makes for 4 parties.

Absract

Why should art be restricted to the galleries. Why should it only be created by artists? What if I said every one of us is and artist. What if I said art is everywhere.

What if I told you 60% of the people in San Francisco have the tools to make art in their pocket.

These are precisely the things being said this century. Art has become democratic and everybody who wants can create it. So lets make some space for it. Lets do it where people go every day. Let do it where they have the time to do it.

In the metro. On the train.

Brushes

Brushes is a natural media painting application designed from scratch for the iPhone and iPod touch. Featuring an advanced color picker, several realistic brushes, extreme zooming, and a simple yet deep interface, it is a powerful tool for creating original artwork on your mobile device.

Brushes allows you to choose any color (including transparency) using the hue/saturation color wheel. With virtually unlimited undo and redo you never need to worry about making a mistake or backing up too far.

BART

Technical Solution

People will use the Brushes application available on App Store to create artwork. Thanks to wireless coverage inside the trains, creatives can use the applications built-in functionality to e-mail the finished artwork to BART. An automatic system will display the artwork on BART screens in the trains and stations.

LCD screens need to be installed in all the trains. Metro stations already have them. It depends on negotiations with the metro company whether these will be temporary or could be part of a long term investment. After the project they can be reused for display of advertisements or public information.

Justification in three I's

- Inspiration: anyone can create art

- Innovation: a new use for the metro

- Internationalization: collaboration without borders

Advertising

How to involve the largest number of people? Advertizing for the project will be based on word-of-mouth. Facebook and Twitter accounts will be set up that announce new artworks that have been uploaded.

Timeframe

The length of the project depends on the participation gradient. We expect the first to be slower with early adopters taking part. The second week word of mouth will have traveled enough and commuters will be familiar enough with the system to try it out by themselves.

To quickstart the project we can recommend two approaches:

- Hire artists to sit on the train and draw. This means there is always someone using the system as an example (Preferrable)

- Post personnel with teaching experience to explain to commuters what they need to do

- Paste posters on the walls with explanations (additional costs on poster design).

Audience

Participants

Young: 18 to 25. Owns and iPhone or other mobile device with capacity for drawing. Bay Area has 800 000 such people. 80% of the take the BART daily.

Project Goals

Promote creativity among the public. Show people the possibilities of out of the box thinking.

Future Prospects

As the project has some viral properties, if managed properly there are possibilities for viral spread and copy in other metropolicies. The limiting factors are:

Access to Internet in the metro

Number of mobile devices with art capabilities in the hands of citizens

ArtBart.me was first conceived by Kris in early 2009 for a culture class in uni lusofona. Having judget that the time was not right yet (only the iphone was popular) he waited. Now in 2010 many more people have a device in their pocket that can draw. The time is here.